The 6th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 6) took place in The Hague, Netherlands, 7-19 April 2002. Some of the documents provided prior to the meeting, e.g. reports on the impacts of applying genetic use restriction technologies or on the status of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, are relevant to applications of biotechnology in food and agriculture in developing countries. See http://www.biodiv.org/meetings/cop-06.asp (most documents are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) or contact secretariat@biodiv.org.